Search This Blog

Subscribe to this blog

Follow by Email

Obama Spokesman Says Trump's Wiretapping Allegation Is False

President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. Trump is accusing former President Barack Obama of having Trump's telephones ``wire tapped’’ during last year's election, but Trump isn’t offering any evidence or saying what prompted the allegation.

PALM BEACH, FLORIDA (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday accused former President Barack Obama of having Trump Tower telephones "wire tapped" during last year's election, a claim that an Obama spokesman said was false.

Trump did not offer any evidence or details, or say what prompted him to make the allegation. Trump, whose administration has been under siege over campaign contacts with Russian officials, said in a series of early morning tweets that he "just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!'

Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said a "cardinal rule" of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered in any Justice Department investigations, which are supposed to be conducted free of political influence.

"As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen," Lewis said, adding that "any suggestion otherwise is simply false." The White House did not immediately reply to inquiries about what prompted the president's tweets.

Trump compared the alleged activity to behavior involving President Richard Nixon and the bugging of his political opponents. "How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!" he tweeted, misspelling 'tap.'

Trump said the wiretapping occurred in October. He ran the presidential transition largely out of Trump Tower in New York, where he also maintains a residence. Trump's tweets came days after revelations that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, during his Senate confirmation hearing, didn't disclose his own campaign-season contacts with Russia's ambassador to the United States. Sessions, a U.S. senator at the time, was Trump's earliest Senate supporter.

Trump's opening tweet Saturday mentioned Sessions and claimed the first meeting Sessions had with the Russian diplomat was "set up by the Obama Administration under education program for 100 Ambs ..."

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the campaign with the goal of helping elect Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton — findings that Trump has dismissed. The FBI has investigated Trump associates' ties to Russian officials. Congress is also investigating.

Trump has blamed Democrats for leaks of information about the investigation and the contacts. It was unclear what prompted Trump's new charge. The president often tweets about reports he reads on blogs and conservative-leaning websites.

The allegations may be related to anonymously sourced reports in British media and blogs, and on conservative-leaning U.S. websites, including Breitbart News. Those reports claimed that U.S. officials had obtained a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to review contacts between computers at a Russian bank and Trump's New York headquarters.

The AP has not confirmed these contacts or the investigation into them. Steve Bannon, Trump's chief strategist in the White House, is a former executive chairman of Breitbart News. FISA is a 1978 law that created a system to hear requests to surveil foreign intelligence agents. It differs from a regular criminal warrant because it does not require the government to provide probable cause that a crime has occurred. Instead, under FISA, the government must simply provide evidence that the target of an investigation is an agent of a foreign power.

Such targetable agents would include Russian diplomats such as Sergei Kislyak, the ambassador who spoke with a number of Trump aides. But a FISA warrant could also include others for whom investigators could muster probable cause, potentially including entities directly connected to Trump.

Obama could not order a FISA warrant. Obtaining one would require officials at the Justice Department to seek permission from the FISA court, which is shrouded in secrecy. Judges could order prosecutors to share FISA information with defendants if they deem it necessary for challenging a search's legality, but courts have consistently agreed with the government that disclosing the material could expose sensitive intelligence secrets.

One exception to this practice is the president himself, who has the authority to declassify records. In Trump's case, he could confirm any such surveillance of his campaign or business undertaken before he took office in January.

Trump is spending the weekend at his waterfront estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after highlighting his education agenda and support for school choice on Friday by visiting a Catholic school in Orlando. Trump had no public events scheduled during the weekend.

After tweeting Saturday about Obama, as well as about Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to leave "The New Celebrity Apprentice," Trump went to his golf club in nearby West Palm Beach. Schwarzenegger replaced Trump as host of the show while the president remained its executive producer.

Trump is also scheduled to have dinner Saturday with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross at Trump's estate, Mar-a-Lago. The president planned to return to the White House late Sunday.

Comments

BIAFRA

Translate

Popular Posts

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, right, accompanied by Gov. Gavin Newsom, said California will probably sue President Donald Trump over his emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, in Sacramento, Calif. Becerra says there is no emergency at the border and Trump doesn't have the authority to make the declaration. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

BY KATHLEEN RONAYNE

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. (AP) — California is likely to sue President Donald Trump over his emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the state attorney general said Friday.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, told reporters that there is no emergency at the border and that Trump doesn’t have the authority to make the declaration.

“No one in America is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” Becerra said. “The president does not have power to act frivolously.”

BY SEYE OLUMIDEABUJA (THE GUARDIAN)--Former Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. General Alani Akinrinade (rtd) in an interview with The Guardian on July 24, 2016, accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari of deceiving Nigerians to win the 2015 election.

The retired service chief said the incumbent signed to a manifesto of restructuring before he secured the support of the Southwest leaders but rescinds immediately he got into office.

Four years down the line, restructuring is still a matter agitating the region few days ahead of the 2019 general election. Some leaders of the region, especially those holding political offices and are also seeking reelection on the platform of the ruling APC are skating around the subject basically because President Buhari and the national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu have refused to mention the matter the subject.

Senegalese President Macky Sall delivers a speech during his coalition's election campaign meeting at Lamine Gueye stadium in Kaolack, Senegal on 12 February 2019. Picture: AFP
DAKAR (AFP)--- Senegal goes to the polls Sunday in a presidential contest that incumbent Macky Sall, facing unusually few challengers in a country fond of vigorous political debate, is confident of winning in the first round.

His two biggest rivals -- popular Dakar ex-mayor Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade, the son of the previous president -- were disqualified after being convicted of corruption in trials questioned by rights groups.

"Victory in the first round is indisputable," a Macky Sall told a recent Dakar campaign rally.

Sall faces competition from four opposition rivals -- lesser-known perhaps, but campaigning hard against the president's plans for a second phase in a controversial infrastructure project called "Emerging Senegal."

A view shows the Bonny oil terminal in the Niger delta which is operated by Royal Dutch Shell in Port Harcourt Thomson Reuters

LONDON (REUTERS) - Nigeria has ordered foreign oil and gas companies to pay nearly $20 billion in taxes it says are owed to local states, industry and government sources said, in a move that could deter investment in Africa's largest economy.

In a letter sent to the companies earlier this year via a debt-collection arm of the government, Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) cited what it called outstanding royalties and taxes for oil and gas production.

Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Eni, Total and Equinor were each asked to pay the central government between $2.5 billion and $5 billion, said the sources, who saw or were briefed on the letters.

Norway's Equinor, which produced around 45,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil in Nigeria in 2017, confirmed the request.

"Several operators have received similar claims in a case between the authoriti…

This illustration released on May 3, 2017 by the Obama Foundation shows plans for the proposed Obama Presidential Center with a museum, rear, in Jackson Park on Chicago's South Side. This view looks from the south with a public plaza that extends into the landscape. Odds still favor the eventual construction of Barack Obama's $500 million presidential museum and library in a park along Chicago's lakeshore. A judge hears arguments Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019, on a city motion to toss a parks-advocacy group’s lawsuit that argues the project violates laws barring development in lakeside parks. (Obama Foundation via AP, File)

BY MICHAEL TARM

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge gave the green light Tuesday to a parks-advocacy group’s lawsuit that aims to stop for good the delayed construction of former President Barack Obama’s $500 million presidential center in a Chicago park beside Lake Michigan.

Supporters of the project had hoped the court would grant a city motion to throw out the law…

In this Aug. 9, 2017 file photo, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington. The State Department says Nauert, picked by President Donald Trump to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations but never officially nominated, has withdrawn her name from consideration on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)BY MATHEW LEE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Heather Nauert, picked by President Donald Trump to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations but never officially nominated, has withdrawn from consideration, the State Department said.

Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a department statement that “the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration.”

Nauert’s impending nomination had been considered a tough sell in the Senate, where she would have faced tough questions about her relative lack of forei…

Honda's President and CEO Takahiro Hachigo speaks during a press conference in Tokyo Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. Honda Motor Co. plans to close its car factory in western England in 2021, the company said Tuesday, in a fresh blow to the British economy as it faces its March 29 exit from the European Union. (Yuya Shino/Kyodo News via AP)BY KAORI HITOMI

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese carmaker Honda plans to close its car factory in western England in 2021, a fresh blow to the British economy as it struggles with the uncertainty associated with leaving the European Union next month.

The company announced the decision, which will imperil 3,500 jobs and possibly many more, at a news conference in Tokyo.

Honda’s president and CEO, Takahiro Hachigo, said the decision was not related to Brexit, but was based on what made most sense for its global competitiveness in light of the need to accelerate its production of electric vehicles.

Residents line up to buy propane gas in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. Businesses and government offices slowly reopened across Haiti on Monday after more than a week of violent demonstrations over prices that have doubled for food, gas and other basic goods in recent weeks and allegations of government corruption. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)BY EVENS SANON, DANICA COTO

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (AP) — Businesses and government offices slowly reopened across Haiti on Monday after more than a week of violent demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise over skyrocketing prices that have more than doubled for basic goods amid allegations of government corruption.

Public transportation resumed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where people began lining up to buy food, water and gasoline as crews cleared streets of barricades thrown up during the protests.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Paul Manafort, the one-time chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, could spend more than 19 years in prison on tax and bank fraud charges, prosecutors said Friday.

Court documents filed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office reveal that Manafort faces possibly the lengthiest prison term in the Russia investigation. The 69-year-old Manafort is also at serious risk of spending the rest of his life in prison if a federal judge imposes a sentence within federal guidelines.

The potential sentence stems from Manafort’s conviction last year on eight felony counts related to an elaborate scheme to conceal from tax authorities the millions of dollars he earned overseas from Ukrainian political consulting. It is one of two criminal cases pending against Manafort in w…